Pebble Point (AM cephalopod collection) (Paleocene of Australia)

Where: Victoria, Australia (38.7° S, 143.2° E: paleocoordinates 61.5° S, 147.0° E)

• coordinate estimated from map

• outcrop-level geographic resolution

When: Pebble Point Formation, Thanetian (59.2 - 56.0 Ma)

• The Pebble Point Formation is relatively thin at approximately 15 m thick, and is conformably overlain by the Dilwyn Formation, a finer clastic unit. The Dilwyn Formation has yielded foraminifera faunas of latest Paleocene to Early Eocene, thus bracketing the Pebble Point Formation as Paleocene in age as the Pebble Point Formation sits with angular unconformity on Cretaceous strata.

• bed-level stratigraphic resolution

Environment/lithology: coastal; lithified, pebbly sandstone

• Some sedimentologists have characterized the Pebble Point Formation as having been deposited in marginal rather than open marine environments, based on the presence of the foram Cyclammina. Yet, the common presence of echinoderms as well as nautilid cephalopods, both intolerant of salinity much higher or lower than open ocean values argues against this. While numerous clasts are present, other evidence suggests quiet sedimentation rather than high energy. Pebble Point Formation thought to have been deposited during a series of channeling and channel abandonment episodes. Mud rip-up clasts and mud drapes indicate times of channel abandonment. Shelly fauna mostly come from the upper half, which may represent a change from estuarine conditions to more open marine conditions.

Size class: macrofossils

Preservation: original aragonite

Collected by Winston Ponder, Tom Darragh

• Repository: Australian Museum, Sydney

Primary reference: P. D. Ward, D. T. O. Flannery, E. N. Flannery and T. F. F. Flannery. 2016. The Paleocene cephalopod fauna from Pebble Point, Victoria (Australia) – fulcrum between two Eras. Memoirs of Museum Victoria 74:391-402 [M. Clapham/M. Clapham]more details

Purpose of describing collection: taxonomic analysis

PaleoDB collection 180733: authorized by Matthew Clapham, entered by Matthew Clapham on 29.07.2016

Creative Commons license: CC BY (attribution)

Taxonomic list

Show authors, comments, and common names
Cephalopoda
 Nautilida - Nautilidae
Nautilus praepompilius
Nautilus praepompilius Shimansky 1957 nautiloid